NEWS & ANALYSIS

"Chaos at funeral!" - Daily Sun

The front page and lead story of SA's largest daily newspaper, August 12 2013

Daily Sun (August 12 2013) - FUNERALS are meant to be respected, but that was not the case at Lungile ­Kubheka's burial . . . Instead, there was so much chaos that one of the mourners was flung out of a spinning car and died! THE DRIVER OF THE CAR WAS SHOWING OFF WHEN HE LOST CONTROL OUTSIDE THE GRAVEYARD.

Two other passengers ended up in hospital and ­another one suffered minor bruises. Daily Sun reported on Tuesday last week how Lungile (15) was killed and her body dumped in her neighbour's yard. Her funeral took place on Saturday in Dobsonville, Soweto. Nkosinathi Mabaso (21) died after being thrown out of the yellow Toyota Corolla. His lifeless body was recovered from the ditch where he landed.

The funeral was not dignified. It was turned into a circus by pupils from Sebetsa-O-Thole Moputso Secondary School who danced on top of moving buses and drove with open car doors. As the church service went on in the tent outside the Kubeka family house, schoolkids stood around outside, playing loud music and dancing with beer bottles in their hands.

Several bus windows were smashed and the bus drivers were so angry that they drove off leaving mourners to walk back home to Snake Park. The pastor preached with a microphone but it was hard to hear what he was saying. Schoolkids were having a service of their own with no Bible or preaching, but lots of alcohol and Mafikizolo's song Happiness.

The disrespectful behaviour angered the family and more than one mourner tried to stop it but the party went on. Lungile's aunt, Ntombizodwa Khuzwayo (51), said: "The way these kids behaved at the funeral hurt us. They disrespected Lungile's funeral and now one of them is dead. Lungile's mum is so upset we had to take her to the doctor after the funeral."

Ntombizodwa said the kids should be made to pay for the bus windows they broke. Frank Mabaso (39), Nkosinathi's uncle, told Daily Sun his nephew came to the funeral with his cousin who is a pupil at Sebetsa-O-Thole Moputso Secondary School. Frank said the family got a call from Nkosinathi's friend telling them there had been an accident. He said: "When we came here, we didn't know that Nkosinathi was dead. Then we found his body." Nkosinathi's distraught mum, sat and cried next to her son's body.

Police Captain Lydia Mtila-Dikolomela confirmed that a culpable homicide docket had been opened for investigation.

See the Daily Sun mobi site for more on this and other stories....

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